Position Paper: Strategies for Opioid Harm Prevention and Management

This report addresses the critical issue of opioid harm prevention, outlining strategies to combat the opioid crisis. It begins by establishing the severity of the problem, citing statistics on opioid-related deaths and prescriptions. The paper then presents various strategies for harm reduction, including the availability of naloxone, needle exchange programs, and pre-arrest diversions to social services. The report emphasizes the importance of education, training, and expanded access to HIV and hepatitis testing. The implications for the nursing profession and patients are also considered. The paper concludes with recommendations for policy changes, such as increased funding for research and safe injection facilities to mitigate the harm associated with opioid addiction.

Running head: OPIOID HARM PREVENTION 1
Opioid Harm Prevention
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Opioid Harm Prevention
Often, everyone gets sick in their lifetime. Sickness is quite annoying as it affects the
schedule and well-being of an individual. That is the reason why people seek medical attention
immediately to alleviate the sickness. Little do we know that some of the drugs that can be
prescribed might have long lasting effects. Opioids are such a group of drugs. This is a group of
drugs including heroin, and the artificial synthetic opioids that include fentanyl and the pain
killers prescribed by physicians such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine and morphine. The
World Health Organization report that between 1999 and 2015,183,000 people died from an
overdose of opioids (Ford & Wright, 2017). Furthermore, the center for Disease Control and
Prevention reported in 2012 that 250 million prescriptions of opioids were made in USA alone
compared to the entire population of 319 million people. In Canada, 2000 opioid overdose deaths
have been reported in the province of Ontario from 1991 to 2014 (Hines, Deja, & Black, 2018).
From the statistics, opioids are harmful if taken for the wrong purpose, it is imperative that
necessary strategies are put in place to curb the opioid menace. I totally agree with the fight
against opioid harm prevention because of the following reasons:
 Excessive use of opioids leads to death.
 It increases the prevalence of blood borne infections such as HIV
 Excessive use of opioids leads to dependence.
There are different strategies that can be used to prevent the harm of opioids. There
should be a law that advocates for availability of naloxone. From different randomized controlled
trials, results note that naloxone is one of the drugs that can reverse the effects of opioids. The
North Carolina General assembly in 2013 passed such a law and the outcome has been
promising. At the moment, more than 60,000 overdose prevention kits have been dispensed in

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North Carolina (Walley, Sisti, Forman, Ruiz, & Xuan, 2017). Besides providing the kit,
education on how to prevent opioid addiction is also provided and this has reduced the harm
associated with opioids by a greater margin. More naloxone should be made available to reverse
the effects of opioids since they are safe and non-addictive drugs.
Needle/exchange programs can be used to prevent the harm of opioids among the drug
users. According to a survey conducted in Carolina back in 2011, results noted that most of the
opioid addicts were using syringes to inject or administer drugs to their bodies. Most of them
were sharing the syringes and this exposes them to the risk of HIV/AIDS. The needle exchange
program can be implemented to prevent the harm of HIV/AIDS since the aim of the initiative is
to provide sterile syringes then collect the used syringes (Wilson, Berk, Adger, & Feldman,
2018). Furthermore, it offers wraparound services like HIV testing then link the participants to
drug treatment programs. The needle exchange program has already been implemented in
different parts such as North Carolina and the outcome has been phenomenal. As of 2018, more
than 1 million syringes have been distributed and 2,600 HIV tests have been conducted.
Furthermore, 3500 people have been referred to different drug treatment programs (Marshall,
Green, Yedinak, & Hadland, 2016). It is advisable that different regions or regions suffering
from opioid addictions should follow suit and incorporate the program in order to alleviate the
harm associated with opioid addiction.
Besides administration of naloxone and needle exchange programs, other strategies
include training those who are affected. It is also necessary to set up pre-arrest diversions. This
involves diverting the drug users to social services where they can be empowered rather than
taking them to jail (Neale & Strang, 2015). Furthermore, more HIV and hepatitis testing services
should be conducted followed up by linkage to treatment services. There should also be laws that

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bar the arrest of individuals who call 911 to report a drug overdose or addiction incident when
small amounts of drugs are found at the scene. Finally, even though it seems controversial, safe
injection facilities should be set up. This is a place where addicts can inject themselves with
drugs but with close supervision from qualified experts.
In conclusion, opioids are safe and important in relieving pain in patients with chronic
conditions like cancer if used correctly. However, failure to adhere to the doctors’ instructions
leads to overdose and wrong administration. This according to studies leads to euphoria,
dependence, addiction and overdose incidents that may even lead to death. Naloxone has been
used for some time but it has not been effective as expected. Therefore, more research should be
conducted to come up with alternative pain killers or better ways to regulate availability and use
of such drugs.

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References
Ford, J., & Wright, L. (2017). Prescription Drug Misuse and Arrest History. Substance Use
& Misuse, 52(13), 1772-1777. doi:10.1080/10826084.2017.1311348
Hines, J., Deja, E., & Black, E. P. (2018). Student pharmacist perceptions of participation in
hands-on naloxone counseling. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 10(6),
712-716. doi:10.1016/j.cptl.2018.03.002
Marshall, B. D., Green, T. C., Yedinak, J. L., & Hadland, S. E. (2016). Harm reduction for
young people who use prescription opioids extra-medically: Obstacles and
opportunities. International Journal of Drug Policy, 31, 25-31.
doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2016.01.022
Neale, J., & Strang, J. (2015). Naloxone-does over-antagonism matter? Evidence of
iatrogenic harm after emergency treatment of heroin/opioid overdose. Addiction,
110(10), 1644-1652. doi:10.1111/add.13027
Walley, A. Y., Sisti, J., Forman, L., Ruiz, S., & Xuan, Z. (2017). Help-seeking among
community responders trained in overdose prevention and naloxone administration.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 171, e210-e211.
doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.576
Wilson, J. D., Berk, J., Adger, H., & Feldman, L. (2018). Identifying Missed Clinical
Opportunities in Delivery of Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Prescription to
Adolescents Using Opioids. Journal of Adolescent Health, 63(2), 245-248.
doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.05.011

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